Anton Otto (theologian)

Anton Otto , also Otho or Ottho , (* approx. 1505 probably in Herzberg (Elster) ; † probably 1588 ) was a German Lutheran theologian and pastor.

Life

Otto studied in Wittenberg , where he obtained his master's degree in 1539 . He was pastor in Graefenhainichen until he was called to the office of pastor primarius at the Church of St. Nikolai in Nordhausen in 1543 . There he published a compilation of Martin Luther's prophecies in 1552 , and later also a collection of his prayers. In the post-Reformation disputes, he took the side of the Gnesiolutherans against the Wittenberg theologians led by Philipp Melanchthon and published some pamphlets. But when he attacked Melanchthon's doctrine of the “third use of the law” ( Usus in renatis ) in 1565 and demanded that the law be banished from the pulpit to the town hall, even leading Gnesiolutherans such as Matthias Flacius attacked him as “antinomists” (see Antinomist dispute ). In 1568 Otto was dismissed in Nordhausen because of his contentiousness and expelled from the city. His further fate was long considered unknown.

It was only in the 20th century that it was established that he worked as a pastor in Buttstädt from 1569 to 1573 and that from 1574 he was the chaplain of the von Hagen family at the Deuna castle in Eichsfeld. He apparently ended his life as a pastor in Stöckey .

literature

• Gustav Frank :  Otto, Anton . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 745 f.
• Ernst Koch : Anton Otho. Way and work of a Luther student . In: Herbergen der Christenheit 13 (1981/82), pp. 67–92 (reprinted in: Ders .: Studies on the theology and piety history of Lutheranism in the 16th to 18th centuries . Spenner, Waltrop 2005, pp. 50– 91).

Web links

• Publications from and about Anton Otto in VD 16 .